Middle-Schoolers Experience 'Day in the Life of a Nurse'

Helping Noelle give birth was a highlight of the day for several students from L.C. Swain Middle School during the Day in the Life of a Nurse event at Palm Beach Atlantic University on Friday.

School of Nursing Associate Dean Dr. Patrick Heyman, left, speaks with students from L.C. Swain Middle School's Medical Academy during the Day in the Life of a Nurse event on Friday at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Noelle is a human simulator in the School of Nursing Skills Lab, and the students, all members the Medical Academy at L.C. Swain, had a chance to practice measuring, weighing and swaddling Noelle’s “newborn.”

The group of 25 students also learned how to take vital signs and properly wrap arms and legs with elastic bandages during the event. Other activities included a video presentation of nurses at on the job and opportunities to interact with PBA students and nursing faculty.

Students also had a chance to tour the campus and have lunch in the cafeteria.

PBA was one more than 50 South Florida hospitals and nursing schools that participated in the Day in the Life of a Nurse, which is organized by the Nursing Consortium of South Florida. Nearly 900 students from Tavernier to Jupiter were able to have a Day in the Life of a Nurse experience on Friday.

“The event is designed to promote knowledge about the profession of nursing and to get them hooked on a health care profession,” said Dr. Joanne Masella, dean of the School of Nursing at Palm Beach Atlantic and this year’s Day in the Life of a Nurse committee chair. Students take part in a pre- and post-event survey to evaluate their knowledge, she said.

Dr. Masella noted that the program would not exist without the collaboration between the South Florida public school systems and the hosting locations.

“I think it was amazing,” said Dr. Ernesto Chirolde, an educator in the Medical Academy at L.C. Swain, adding that some of the students were excited to see some of the same medical equipment that they have at their school in Greenacres. “It’s going to make them more focused. They’re going to have a greater appreciation of what they already have.”

Lenora Mendez, an eighth-grader, said she enjoyed learning about childbirth, and Lady Trenco, a seventh-grader, enjoyed hearing from those who are working in the profession. “I liked that they brought nursing students in,” Trenco said.

Natali Tamayo, also a seventh-grader, said she decided to pursue a nursing career after hearing about it from her cousin, who works in the medical field. “She used to tell me about what she did at work” and it sounded quite interesting, Tamayo said.

Some students, like eighth-grader Brenden Nocca, are keeping their options open. Nocca is interested in pursuing a biotechnical or biomedical career but is exploring nursing as well. “I feel that (the event) did give me a taste of how nursing is,” he said.

Eighth-grader Troy Bernard plans to study mathematics and graphic design, but he said “nursing is a good field, a very educational one that can help a lot of people out.”